What We Do
"Sounds great - but what do you do?"
Our projects are broad-ranging - from festivals to interdisciplinary art installations to educational programming to performance art to capacity-building for social and creative entrepreneurs - and they all share these common traits:
They are collaborative - all projects rely on groups of people working together towards a common goal.
They build community - these groups comprise of individuals who do not regularly interact with each other.
They are cutting edge - all projects work on or beyond the line between the conventional and the new.
Current Projects
• The Synchronicity Festival - The art farm's annual Synchronicity Festival brings together farmers, chefs, artists, artisans, change-makers and social entrepreneurs for a multi-day carnival-like event featuring live music, the art farm's Rainforest Circus, an artisan and farmers market, a children’s tent, and info booths for innovative organizations and businesses. The festival is intended to display the diversity of progressive and innovative people that live and work among us, offering them an opportunity to cross-pollinate their networks, and provide locals and tourists with a fresh new look at the Sunshine Coast as a whole.
• The Rainforest Circus - an artistic experiment challenging artists and audiences alike to rediscover a new relationship with the forest and wilderness that surrounds them. "Where the circus meets the rainforest" - that's the theme our group of professional hybrid artists work with - with the goal to bring this unique celebration of human and natural ingenuity to communities across BC and Canada in the years to come.
• The REACH Initiative: Re-integrating Existing Assets into Community Hubs - an ongoing Sunshine Coast initiative with other key community partners (including Sunshine Coast Arts Council and the One Straw Society) looking at how creative and social entrepreneurs can share existing resources and space to maximize productivity and results.
• Pollinate – An ongoing initiative in collaboration with other community organizations to design art + nature = change programming for schools, tours and communities across the province.
• The art farm hub - work-to-stay residencies, volunteer programming for youth and ongoing land-based experimentation on the five acre farm that the art farm leases.
Past art farm events
• Future of Community Arts 2011 - A Community Arts Council of Vancouver organized event, the art farm unveiled the Shadow Project to unsuspecting passerbys as part of a symposium on the future of community arts at the Woodwards Atrium in Vancouver BC.
• TedX Sechelt 2011 - The art farm joined numerous other local creative engines here on the coast for the Sunshine Coast’s very first TedX event, produced by the Sunshine Coast Arts Council.
• Sechelt Festival of the Arts 2011- An experiement in circus meeting forest meeting theatre. Sechelt Festival of the Arts commissioned the art farm to bring its forest-based collaborative piece onto the stage.
• Second Annual Halloween Pumpkin Spiral 2011 – Come on back and enjoy more carved pumpkins, costumes, and halloween craziness at our second annual pumpkin spiral on the art farm.
• The Rainforest Circus 2011- Eight artists, a stage manager, an epic team of volunteers and skilled staff, a theme ("what happens when the circus meets the rainforest") and an audience of over 600 over two days of performances. The art farm's first Rainforest Circus so far exceeded expectations that plans are in the works for an expanded version that can tour across BC and Canada (The Rainforest Initiative).
• Synchronicity Festival 2011 - our first festival off the farm in Shirley Macey Park featuring the premiere production of the Rainforest Circus, over 25 local artisans, entrepreneurs and community groups, children's tent, eco-art installations and the VOICE stage with 10 different musical acts ranging from blue-grass to DJs to straight-up rock'n'roll. Festival attendance shattered all previous records at over 1000+
• DOXA Sunshine Coast 2011 - The highly successful Vancouver-based Documentary Film Festival branched out to the Sunshine Coast with four days of riveting films at the Raven's Cry Theatre in Sechelt. The art farm took part as a presenting partner for the closing night presentation of Saint Misbehavin; a film that documents the artist Wavy Gravy's “journey from California to the Himalayas, and how he serves humanity as a activist and healer.
• Talking Trash 2011- as part of the SCRD open houses on their Zero Waste plans, the art farm curated a gallery showing of local artists using land-fill garbage in their work and hosted a series of workshops for children and parents on using garbage as material for creative play
• How the Loon Lost it’s Voice 2011 - As a work-exchange program with Canada World Youth volunteer Marc Desaulnier, the art farm helped the amazing Marc self-create and produce his own puppet show based on a local First Nations legend he was drawn to.
• SPIDER program 2011 – a 5 week series of ‘art + nature = change’ workshops for K-7 children in the SD46 Distributed Learning program
• Earth Hour Lantern workshop 2011 – in collaboration with the SCRD Sustainability Department, the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association and others, a day long workshop in lantern creation using recycled materials for over 200 parents and children in the lead up to an Earth Hour parade in Sechelt
• Senior Services Society 2011– one-day team-building retreat, using art + nature programming on the art farm
• Synchronicity 2010 – a festival on the farm with children’s tent, roaming circus, artisans, food and more – over 500 attendees spanning 2 ½ days
• SynchroniCITY 2010 – the art farm’s coming out party at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre including the film premiere of the Synchronicity 2010 film (1 night - 200 attendees)
• Halloween Pumpkin Spiral 2010 – in collaboration with The Arts Building, 45 children and adults carved their own pumpkins and displayed them in the art farm’s laurel spiral for over 150 guests (in costume, of course).
• Frisbee Golf Course Clean-Up 2010 – In collaboration with London Drugs, the SCRD and several community sponsors, the art farm spearheaded a day-long clean-up and art-ification of the underused Shirley Macey park frisbee golf course
• Gibsons Jazz Festival 2009-11 – the art farm has now become a Jazz Festival tradition with an interactive booth and installations at the Saturday Dougall Park event
• RETURN 2009– a farm and forest gallery featuring the work of Sunshine Coast, Lower Mainland and North American artists – over 300 attendees spanning 2 days
• Duck Pluck Children’s Festival 2010-11 – the art farm sets up an interactive booth for children’s art+nature activities at the Gibsons-based Children’s festival
• Cob-house construction 2009-11 – a hands-on learning series over two years led by the Saltspring Island-based natural building coop ‘The Mudgirls’ as well as a Sunshine Coast based natural building co-op ‘The Good Earth Builders’
• Otesha Project 2008 – as part of their 2008 environmental awareness raising tour, the Otesha Project partnered with the art farm to carry out a 4 day intensive residency program and create a new show
• Work-to-stay residencies at the art farm hub 2008-11 – artists, farmers and innovators help to build and maintain infrastructure on the art farm’s 5 acres of leased space in exchange for the time and space to explore arts and nature-based projects of their own.